REVIEW: CHILDREN OF EDEN

The church is a marvel of architecture, with high, ornate ceilings reaching to the heavens. The crowd chatted excitedly, eager to see the hottest Broadway stars and to hear an increasingly well-known score performed by a choir of more than one hundred singers. Ironically, World AIDS Day used to be a Day Without Art to honor the many artists who have died of AIDS. This year, however, rather than taking art away, The National AIDS Fund celebrated the spirit and strength that inspires us all to grow and improve and build- "The Spark of Creation" so essential to art and life. Joining forces with the York Theatre Company to present Stephen Schwartz's and John Caird's Children of Eden in the truly awesome Riverside Church, the two groups gave audiences a chance to appreciate beauty and art while getting an inspiring message of love, hope and redemption.

As most benefits do, the evening began with some brief speeches: The York Theatre Company's David McCoy pointed out how much the York has accomplished in its 35 years, producing many new and innovative works. The National AIDS Fund's Stephen Bridges gave some truly sobering AIDS statistics, and composer Steven Schwartz, who talked briefly about the "Genesis" of Children of Eden.

And then Norm Lewis appeared, dressed all in white as Father, leading the choir with his grand voice in the rousing "Let There Be." (When, oh, when will Norm Lewis have a new musical written just for him?) Jonathan Dokuchitz and Julia Murney sang the roles of Adam and Eve with beautiful grace and power, letting the characters develop quickly through their early songs: Adam is content in the Garden, Eve craves answers to her many questions. When Laura Benanti entered, leading a chain of singers as the Snake, one could easily see how Eve would fall to such wiles. (While the concept of having many actors play the Snake was quite amusing, it became rather distracting by the middle of the song. However, keeping Julia Murney essentially stationary at her microphone and letting Benanti and Co. move around the stage beautifully indicated Eve's confinement and the Snake's freedom.)

To highlight their theme of choice and its inherent responsibilities, Caird and Schwartz gently depart with Biblical history at this point, having Eve announce that she is pleased with her new-found Knowledge, and making Adam choose to remain with his wife in exile, rather than being forced out with her. The tension in the Expulsion scene was palpable, and despite everyone in the audience knowing what would happen, many of us held our breath in anticipation as Dokuchitz sang "A World Without You," waiting to see what life he would choose.

Once Adam and Eve become parents, history repeats itself: Abel (Max von Essen) is gentle and passive like his father, while Cain has his mother's curiosity. Darius de Haas stopped the show with Cain's lament that his family is "Lost in the Wilderness," and the following battle between Adam (who wants his children to remain safe and naïve) and Cain (who wants knowledge) was made all the tenser by the choir clapping and stomping their feet to indicate slaps and blows. Ultimately, of course, Abel gets the fatal blow Cain had meant for his father, and the first family is torn apart. Murney brought Act One to a heartbreaking end with the title song, a farewell from a dying Eve to her descendents, The Children of her third son, Seth (Avenue Q's John Tartaglia).

As a special treat, Jai Rodriguez, star of Zanna, Don't!, Rent, and TV's Queer Eye for the Straight Guy, performed an earlier version of "A World Without You" that had been cut from the final version of Children of Eden. (When, oh, when will he return to Broadway?) As Act Two began, Natalie Douglas and Matt Zarley traced the "Generations" of Adam through Seth's line to Noah (Dokuchitz again) and his family (Murney, von Essen, de Haas, and Tartaglia again). Once more, the writers deviate from the Bible and give the wives of Noah's sons names and personalities, and include a Romeo-and-Juliet-esque romance between Noah's son Japheth and a daughter of Cain's side of the family, Yonah (Kate Shindle). God has commanded Noah to only save The Children of Seth's line, and Yonah is meant to drown in the Flood. Yonah's lament at her predicament, "Stranger to the Rain," was impressively powerful as performed by the former Miss America, and one gets the feeling that Ms. Shindle will have the success of her predecessor, Vanessa Williams. A love duet between Japheth and Yonah, "In Whatever Time We Have," was heartbreaking as performed by Shindle and de Haas.

As Adam defied his Father, and Cain defied his, Japheth defies Noah's orders and hides Yonah aboard the Ark. Discovering this rebellion, Noah must decide if he should also defy God's orders, or lose his son. Noah and Father learn to let go of their children, and forgive their disobedience. "The Hardest Part of Love" gave Dokuchitz a chance to let the subtlety of his performance shine through. Yonah and Japheth are married, the rains end, and Mama Noah lets loose with a gospel-flavored "Ain't It Good?" As she did in The Wild Party, Murney raised the roof with her high belting, and made the song an eleven-o'clock number to remember. The show ends as Noah's children bid farewell to their parents and each other, heading off into the new world to find their own homes- their own Edens.

The awestruck and emotional audience filed out of the church and headed downtown to The Supper Club, where the tears gave way to cheers and laughter. Fans and cast members alike gathered in the King Kong Room, and much praise was poured with the drinks. The stars talked excitedly about their experiences with the show, and their thoughts about it. "It's an extraordinary piece," Julia Murney said. "The lyrics speak to you about the state of the world." Max von Essen, who played both Abel and Ham, remarked that the cast was so "consumed with getting it together that we forgot how powerful it was… It's otherworldly." John Tartaglia, who played Seth and Shem, gushed that the show was literally breathtaking. "I stood there, and I lost my breath, so honored to be a part of it… Jamie [McGonnigal] was so great, making sure we had a sense of our characters." Darius de Haas, who also played Cain and Japheth at New Jersey's Paper Mill Playhouse and appears on the Original Cast Recording, said that "it was great to revisit a role I've done. It came back very easily. It's a pleasure to sing that score. Thanks to Stephen for letting me soar!" In the time between his two productions of the show, he said, "things got deeper. That sense of family and making your own way, it resonates deeply. I think everyone deals with that. I'm happy that Cain, in this interpretation, is passionate and wants to explore. He loved his brother, but it went awry." Avenue Q's Jennifer Barnhart, who was part of the Snake-chain, said that she was "honored to be part of this. It was so incredible to be featured in the Snake's song… I got up there, and they started to sway, and I was drawn into the music, and how powerful it is." Her enthusiasm and joy echoed that of everyone in the room.